Glympse Bio, a US-based bioengineered diagnostic sensor developer spun out from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), attracted $22m on Tuesday in a series A round featuring biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences.

Spinout-focused venture capital fund LS Polaris Innovation Fund and Arch Venture Partners co-led the round, which included private healthcare group Heritage Provider Network, GreatPoint Ventures, Rivas Capital, Yonghua Capital, Charles River Ventures and Inevitable Ventures.

Founded in 2015, Glympse is working on bioengineered diagnostic sensors that will travel through a patient’s body to help identify diseased tissues indicative of conditions such as non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (Nash), also known as fatty liver disease.

The sensors can be administered with minimal invasiveness, producing a signal which is detected from the recipient’s urine and then categorised according to disease characteristics or the objectives of clinical trials.

Glympse is already collaborating with drug developers on sensors targeting Nash and will use the series A cash to progress clinical trials of the technology for both Nash and cancer.

The series A proceeds will also help the company calibrate its approach for other diseases with unmet medical needs and find additional partnerships which use the sensors to monitor a patient’s response to medications.

Amy Schulman, the partner at investment firm Polaris Partners who runs LS Polaris Innovation Fund, will join Glympse’s board of directors together with diagnostics industry veteran Stan Lapidus and Theresia Gouw, founding partner of VC firm Aspect Ventures.

Glympse was founded from research at the laboratory of Sangeeta Bhatia, a professor of health sciences and technology and of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT who also directs the university’s Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine.

The company had previously raised $6.6m in a 2015 seed round co-led by Gouw and angel investor Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw.

Glympse Bio, a US-based bioengineered diagnostic sensor developer spun out from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), attracted $22m on Tuesday in a series A round co-led by spinout-focused venture capital fund LS Polaris Innovation Fund.
Arch Venture Partners co-led the round, which included biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences, private healthcare group Heritage Provider Network, GreatPoint Ventures, Rivas Capital, Yonghua Capital, Charles River Ventures and Inevitable Ventures.
Founded in 2015, Glympse is working on bioengineered diagnostic sensors that will travel through a patient’s body to help identify diseased tissues indicative of conditions such as non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (Nash), also known as fatty liver disease.
The sensors can be administered with minimal invasiveness, producing a signal which is detected from the recipient’s urine and then categorised according to disease characteristics or the objectives of clinical trials.
Glympse is already collaborating with drug developers on sensors targeting Nash and will use the series A cash to progress clinical trials of the technology for both Nash and cancer.
The series A proceeds will also help the company calibrate its approach for other diseases with unmet medical needs and find additional partnerships which use the sensors to monitor a patient’s response to medications.
Amy Schulman, the partner at investment firm Polaris Partners who runs LS Polaris Innovation Fund, will join Glympse’s board of directors together with diagnostics industry veteran Stan Lapidus and Theresia Gouw, founding partner of VC firm Aspect Ventures.
Glympse was founded from research at the laboratory of Sangeeta Bhatia, a professor of health sciences and technology and of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT who also directs the university’s Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine.
The company had previously raised $6.6m in a 2015 seed round co-led by Gouw and angel investor Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw.